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Capcom 2006 Press Event Recap

Bringing everything full circle was the announcement of Street Fighter Alpha Anthology for the PlayStation 2, due to release in the 2nd quarter. This compilation will include arcade-faithful ports of Street Fighter Alpha, Street Fighter Alpha 2, Street Fighter Alpha 2: Gold, and Street Fighter Alpha 3. A surprise addition to this package is the hard-to-find Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix, which showed up in U.S. arcades as Pocket Fighter.

While it had been previously announced, the Street Fighter momentum was carried on with the unveiling of Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting for Xbox Live Arcade, due for release in the near future. The game will be available for download to Xbox Live users, and will include "quarter matches", an attempt at recreating the arcade experience. Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting will also provide stat tracking, leaderboards, and achievements.

At this point, Midori Yuasa, General Manager and Senior Vice President of Mobile & Interactive Media, gave a presentation detailing Capcom's plans to shake up the rapidly growing mobile gaming marketplace. The two most prominent games were Super Puzzle Fighter 2, and in a particularly surprising announcement, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney for mobile phones. Phoenix Wright will actually feature monthly case downloads, presumably expanding the game well past what was available on the Nintendo DS.

Saving the highest profile games for last, Capcom next showcased their Xbox 360 games, starting with Dead Rising. Giving the presentation was Keiji Inafune, Senior Corporate Officer of Research and Development, but perhaps better known as the creator of the Mega Man and Onimusha series. According to Inafune, Dead Rising will offer players a series of important choices, while giving them the freedom to do what they feel is right. The basic plot revolves around the player-controlled protagonist, an everyman journalist chasing the scoop of the century--what exactly is causing the sudden appearance of all these zombies?

Paying homage to George Romero's classic zombie films, Dead Rising takes place in an immense shopping mall packed to the brim with the walking dead. The player is free to choose how the next 72 hours are spent, at which point a helicopter will arrive to airlift the unsuspecting hero out of danger. Whether you decide to search for clues, rescue other people, or just find a way to survive will determine the ending you receive before the credits roll.